Latin America Daily Briefing

Mar 07, 2025

Argentina

Argentine President Javier Milei announced he would file an emergency decree mandating that Congress support his administration in a potential deal with the International Monetary Fund. (Buenos Aires Herald)

Regional Relations

Trump's decision to cancel a major oil deal with Venezuela earlier this week came amid pressure from Miami's three Republican House members who oppose enriching Nicolás Maduro's government, reports Axios. “To get their way, the three House members suggested — but never explicitly threatened — that they would withhold votes Trump needed for the GOP budget deal that the House narrowly passed last week.”
A strategy of targeted engagement with Venezuela, rather than returning to maximum pressure, could foster a genuine democratic transition, argues Francisco Rodríguez in Foreign Policy.
Colombian Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia still sees the U.S. as a strategic partner under Donald Trump, and told Bloomberg she wants to reset diplomacy a month after President Gustavo Petro triggered a brief tariff war with a post on social media.
“The U.S. State Department abruptly canceled foreign aid programs supporting opposition activists, political prisoners and religious groups in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, raising concerns about a shift in U.S. foreign policy,” reports the Miami Herald.
“Trump’s iconoclastic politics and his willingness to upend long-held alliances have alarmed Europeans and shocked many Americans, but Latin Americans find the US leader easier to fathom. They recognise a familiar figure — the caudillo or strongman, a hardy perennial in the region for two centuries,” writes Michael Stott in the Financial Times.

Mexico

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum thanked her U.S. counterpart Donald Trump for an "excellent and respectful" call yesterday, in which he granted Mexico reprieve from trade tariffs, and promised that her government would work on security and migration, reports Reuters. (See yesterday’s post.)
Sheinbaum, under U.S. pressure regarding Chinese goods that enter the North American free trade zone, said yesterday that her government would review its tariffs with Beijing. (AFP)
Mexico is heading towards unprecedented judicial elections, in a country “that last year endured the bloodiest political elections in its modern history, the heightened public exposure of those competing for the prestigious posts has sparked fears that the candidates will be easy targets,” reports Reuters.
“As women across Mexico prepare to take to the streets for International Women's Day on Saturday, activists warn of fragile advances and mounting challenges five months into the presidency of the Latin American nation's first female president,” reports Reuters.

El Salvador

In the latest of a series of academic articles, scholars Cree Jones and Preston Lloyd examine the case of El Salvador and add to mounting evidence that gang truces may provide a short-term reprieve from violence but over time can add to the total death toll, reports InSight Crime.

Uruguay

Oliver Stuenkel probes why “Uruguay has proved remarkably resilient in the face of the increasing political polarization sweeping the globe,” in Foreign Policy.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

St. Vincent and the Grenadines announced the purchase of a privately owned island, Baliceaux, where thousands of colonial resisters in the 18th century perished from disease and starvation, a move celebrated by members of the Garifuna community, the descendants of enslaved Africans and Indigenous Kalinago and Arawak people, who were sent to the island to die. (Guardian)

Ecuador

At least 22 people were killed in gang violence in Guayaquil, highlighting the worsening law and order situation in Ecuador before next months presidential runoff vote. (Al Jazeera)

Regional

Growing concern in Latin American countries about violence and organized crime are a vulnerability for leftist governments in Chile, Brazil and Colombia ahead of national elections, reports Bloomberg.
Latin American feminists played a historic role in enshrining women’s rights at the U.N. - Weekly Asado

Peru

Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian Amazon who are calling for the government to stop oil and gas projects in their territory took their case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights this week, reports the Associated Press.
Tarcila Rivera-Zea, a member of the Quechua community in Peru, has spent decades pushing for Native peoples to be heard - New York Times.